How Indian classical dancer defied her family to rise to the top – with students of Kathak dance in Hong Kong, the US and Europe
Sunayana Hazarilal on giving up a middle-class life to marry her dance guru, earning respect in India thanks to success on a foreign tour, and the students the world over flocking to learn from her
First steps I was born in a town called Bareilly, in Uttar Pradesh, in the north of India. I’m one of five children – three boys and two girls.
My father was the commissioner of railway safety and his job took him all over the country. My mother accompanied him with the youngest child; the rest of the children stayed with my grandparents and an aunt in a house in Varanasi that my father had built.
My grandfather was very strict – we went from home to school and back again. I didn’t go out and play with the other children. I would sit by myself and think about what I needed to do with my life. My grandfather didn’t approve of dancing but, when I was seven, my aunt gave my sister and me money for lessons. It was just two rupees.
I enjoyed dancing but I didn’t learn anything in those classes. My grandfather agreed to let me learn to sing and got me a teacher. I became very good at singing and won a gold medal for it at school.
Forget ballet and hip hop: India’s classical forms of dance are back in fashion